


Short Circuit

by alvahana



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Fainting, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mementos (Persona 5), Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27614135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alvahana/pseuds/alvahana
Summary: Akira collapsed during one of the routine Mementos trips. The team looked after him and into the cause. After all, they knew how their Leader tended to overstrain himself without knowing when to stop.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 127





	Short Circuit

The first thing Akira saw when he came to was the blurred backside of a black, furry figure. Taking in the surroundings, he noticed he was lying in one of Mementos’ rest areas. He blinked several times trying to clear his vision, but instead elicited a dull ache in the temples. A groan escaped his lips, prompting the figure in front to turn around. It was Morgana.

“Guys, guys! He’s up!” The feline shouted, his loud voice aggravating Akira’s headache. There was a round of surprised gasps and sighs of relief before his friends came into view, looking down at him with varying degrees of concern.

“Joker! How’re you feeling?” It was Ann who spoke first.

“...My head...feels funny…” The leader slowly propped himself up from the row of hard plastic chairs. The change in orientation made his head spin, so he shut his eyes to ride it out before continuing, “…What happened?”

“You don’t remember…?” Futaba asked tentatively.

He wished he did and felt guilty for worrying his team, especially the latest and youngest member, but everything was a blur in his mind. He gave her a slight headshake.

“You collapsed during a battle,” Yusuke said simply.

“One moment you were hittin’ the Shadow with a curse spell, the next your Persona vanished and you did an impressive face-plant...” Ryuji trailed off and grimaced, apparently bothered by the memory of his best friend passing out. Makoto noticed the blonde’s unease and picked up the explanation.

“We thought you got hit by one of the Shadows without us noticing, but you didn’t get up even after Mona and Panther gave you Diarama and Amrita Drop. So Skull and Fox carried you here…” Makoto paused. “You’ve been unconscious for half an hour.”

“…You gave us quite a scare, Joker,” Ann added.

He tried to recall what had happened. He did remember fighting a group of nasty Shadows with different elemental traits, requiring the Thieves to resort to magic attacks, and him to switch between various powerful yet draining Personas. The battle dragged on for quite a while but with joint effort they were close to finishing off. That was when everything went dark. His last memory was him trying to switch from one Persona to another…which one was it again?

“Urghhh…” Thinking was making his head throb even worse. He burrowed his head in his hands, hoping the pain would recede.

“Hey, why don’t you lie back down?” Ann sounded worried. “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Huh? For what?”

“For passing out like that during battle…I put you guys in danger.” He gingerly lifted up his head, addressing each of his friends with shame and guilt, even though none of them seemed even a little bit mad at him. Only sympathy and understanding.

“Akira, you’re our leader, but even you can’t always be 100%,” Makoto said with a small smile. “It’s what teammates are for, right?”

“Yeah man, don’t beat yourself up!” Ryuji added. “’Sides, you actually did a lot of the heavy lifting before passing out, and the Shadows were almost down by then. All we had to do was give them a final blow!”

“That’s right.” Morgana’s eyes narrowed to slits and glanced sideway at the blonde. “You have to give someone a chance to contribute every now and then, or he’ll be completely useless.”

“Why’re you lookin’ at me, cat!?” Ryuji barked. Akira winced.

“Lower your voice, Skull!” Ann hissed before Morgana could retort. “You’re making his headache worse!”

“Ahh…sorry man.”

Their banter and kind words eased Akira’s distress, even if only a little. He gave them a grateful smile before running his hands through his hair trying to compose himself, but then noticed something was missing.

“Guys, have you seen my mask?”

“I believe it was already gone when you fell,” Yusuke said.

Akira stood up shakily. After taking a moment to steady himself, he hold out his hand in front of his face, trying to concentrate and conjure up the mask. He could feel Arsene and other Personas roaming deep inside him, but none of them respond to his call, as if they were refusing to surface. After a few more tries, his headache was back with a vengeance, causing him to groan frustratingly and stumble.

“Woah woah woah, take it easy.” Skull steadied him with both hands. “You still look kinda pale.”

Morgana retrieved an energy drink from his belt pouch. “Drink this, Joker. You should stay hydrated.” Akira mumbled his thanks, sat down again and took several sips. The cool drink brought a welcoming sensation to his heated body, chasing away some of the tension.

“Were you trying to summon your Persona just now?” Yusuke asked, to which the leader respond with a slight nod.

“I can still feel Arsene among other Personas in me, but my head hurts whenever I think too hard…” He rubbed his temples in the hope of dissipating the annoying ache. “It’s like I stayed up to study exam for a whole week, except I went to bed pretty early at Mona’s resistance recently.”

“Maybe you’ve caught a cold, or running a fever?” Ann put a hand on his forehead. He would have dodged it if he wasn’t so worn down. “Well, you do feel quite warm, but I don’t think it’s high enough to be a fever.”

“Oracle, can you do another status scan on Joker?” Makoto asked.

“Just did. Same as what I got earlier.” The hacker had been silent, apparently busy doing her analysis during their conversation. “No status ailment, decent HP, SP was running low when he fainted, but I gave him a boost right away and it’s now back to normal.” She looked up from her screen. “Anyway, low SP or even the Forget effect shouldn’t have caused what he’s experiencing.” A pause. “It’s like you had a power blackout or something.”

“Power blackout…” The second-in-command hold her hand under her chin. Akira could see gears turning in her head. “Tell me, Joker. Did you stop by the…Velvet Room is it? Before we went into Mementos today?”

He nodded. It had become a habit of his to pay Igor, Justine and Caroline a visit to make preparation before diving into the Metaverse.

“Was there anything new, or unusual?”

He contemplated the earlier event. It wasn’t any different from his other Velvet Room visits. The place was the same gloomy Panopticon covered with blue mist; Igor’s chilling grin and the twins’ contradictory personalities were just as disturbing. Akira had fused some new, higher-level Personas, and Igor had given a boost to his Persona holding capacity…wait, was that it?

The Thieves must had noticed the nuance in his expression, as they were giving him questioning looks.

“They enhanced my Persona capacity today – I can now hold twelve Personas at once,” explained Akira. “And I took that opportunity to fuse some high ranks. Renewed half of my stock.”

“Hmm, no wonder a lot of those you used today were never seen before,” Morgana said.

“Yeah, you switched between them like flipping through the pages of a book.” Ryuji raised his brows.

“That’s it. That’s the problem,” Makoto said.

“Queen…?”

“I think I know what’s going on with Joker.”

“OOOOOH, I get it too!” Futaba cut in giddily. Makoto gave the younger girl an encouraging nod, letting her to take the lead.

“A full CPU usage can affect the system processing capability and cause over–”

“Speak human please, Oracle,” Ann interrupted, prompting a dramatic eye roll from the younger girl.

“Simply put, it’s like when you switch on all the electrical appliances in a house at the same time,” Makoto explained slowly. “The high demand of power may cause a temporary power outage.”

Morgana's expression dawned. “You’re saying his brain went into overdrive because he tried to process too many Personas at a time.”

“Exactly.”

Yusuke made a thoughtful noise, then nodded. “That makes sense. An electronic can experience short circuits and overloading, so can a human brain.”

“So…” Akira frowned. “I passed out because I rushed into making a full use of my latest capacity upgrade?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Futaba shrugged.

“Huh.”

Ryuji scratched the back of his head. “Okay, I got the reason why Joker conked out. But where’s his mask and why ain’t his Personas answerin’ his call?”

“I think…they’re trying to protect him,” Makoto said.

“From what?”

“From himself!” Futaba said. “They wanna stop their master from frying his own brain!” At the confused expression on Ann, Ryuji and Yusuke, the hacker continued, “You see, Joker’s Personas were like an electronic fuse, a safety component to prevent load overcurrent. Without them, he wouldn’t know his limit.”

Morgana nodded. “He probably would’ve continued to flip through and switch between these high-level, mentally draining Personas he just acquired, until his brain shuts down.”

“Shut down…as in…?” Ryuji asked, eyes widen.

“Who knows…he could’ve gone cray-cray, or even…” Futaba cut herself off mid-sentence, the phrase “mental breakdown” stuck in her throat. From the look on everyone’s face, it was obvious they were thinking about more or less the same thing. Even Morgana had his ears flattened back on his head.

Akira’s stomach churned. That was the reason why his mask was gone and he couldn’t summon up any of his Personas, even though he could feel their presence. Thinking back to his earlier trip to the Velvet Room, Igor had told him to take it slow after enhancing his Persona holding ability. But not a word about _going crazy_ or _mental shutdown_. Akira made a mental note to ask the long-nosed man about it (nicely, he didn’t want to upset Caroline) next time, even though he had a feeling the man would just play innocent.

He shuddered at the thought of how horribly wrong the situation could have gone. It was only thanks to Arsene and his other Personas that his brain cells were spared from turning into black ooze.

“Are you okay, Leader?” Yusuke’s voice brought him out of his thought.

“Y-yeah, just…taking in the whole situation.” Despite the grim outcome of his near-miss, he had to admit learning the cause of his ailment did help relieve his headache and agitation.

“On the bright side, if our theory is correct, your predicament should only be temporary,” Morgana said, confidence back on his feature. “It may take a while for your mind and body to get used to the enhanced capacity, so for now, try not to swap over too frequently during battles.”

“Mona’s right,” Makoto nodded. “Get a good night’s sleep. Give your brain a reboot. I’m sure your mask will come back to you naturally next time we’re back.”

“Yeah, right now we don’t have an active target, may as well take some time off!” Ann chirped.

“Agreed!” Ryuji spoke up.

Akira wanted to point out they had been taking time off the whole summer holiday; they went to the beach _just two days ago_ , but he wasn’t going to turn down his friends’ well-intentioned suggestion.

“In the meantime, we can continue to help Oracle boost her social skills,” Yusuke said.

“You’re the last person I want to get socializing tips from, Inari.” Futaba gave the lanky boy a dirty look. “You suck at talking to people as much as I do.”

“I have no clue what you are insinuating. I am perfectly capable of holding a meaningful conversation,” Yusuke retorted, looking more self-pleased than offended.

“More like a one-sided rambling speech about art-related subjects...”

They let Akira rest for a while longer before leaving the rest area and heading for the entrance. Morgana once again transformed into a bus. Makoto took the driver seat with Futaba riding shotgun. Akira settled down to the middle row with Ryuji, while Ann and Yusuke sat at the rear.

As he rested his forehead on the window, Akira decided to trust the team and take their words of advice – quit worrying and let his brain rest – at least for the moment. Between Mona-bus’ soothing engine rumble and the occasional quiet chitchats among his friends, he soon found his eyelids getting heavy, his mind wandering into a blank state. Arsene’s gentle voice was the last thing he heard as he drifted into a peaceful slumber.

_Rest now, young thieve. You shall find your strength again before long, and we shall all be here when you are ready._

And Akira did as he was told, surrounded by the protective circle of Arsene, his other Personas and dear friends.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came from my own feeling when playing the game. There were times I felt like my brain was going to short circuit having to flip through Joker’s array of Personas to find the one I need, especially in Scramble, where the fights were in the form of real-time combats. So of course I won't miss this opportunity to write some h/c for poor Akira :P
> 
> Also, Haru is absent from this story because I decided to set it in the end of August – 8/31 to be exact – as it is the day Joker got his capacity boost from 10 to 12 slots in the game.


End file.
